JR Hildebrand broke bone in left hand at Long Beach
JR Hildebrand broke a bone in his left hand in a last-lap crash at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday.
Hildebrand collided with Mikhail Aleshin on the run down into Turn 1 as the two were battling for position on the final lap.
The IndyCar Series officials deemed that Aleshin was blocking and he was credited with 12th in the final running order behind Hildebrand in 11th.
Following the race, Hildebrand was diagnosed with a broken bone in his left hand sustained in the incident. The Ed Carpenter Racing driver will have to be re-evaluated before being cleared to race again.
“On the last lap, I was making a move on Mikhail Aleshin and I could tell he was struggling,” said Hildebrand. “I was out of push-to-pass so I was trying to make a proper, full-out pass down the front straightaway.
“He had been starting to move over, not a major blocking maneuver but enough to assert his line. He hit the brake a lot earlier than I was expecting and I ended up running into the back of him. In doing so, it ripped the steering wheel from my hand and I ended up tweaking it.”
“At the end of the day, to come home with an 11th place finish isn’t terrible. It is a bummer though as we were certainly on our way to finishing in the Top 10 and now we are in a bit of a jam going forward. Hopefully I can get back to it here before the next race.”
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